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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Re: off topic
by Michael Carnes 19 Oct '04

19 Oct '04

I think I've always gotten my rebates, but it always takes so long that it's just some mysterious check when it arrives. I never remember what it was for. Michael Hi Jo, I've sent in rebate forms for various computer products, such as a Chinese language course and either a printer or printer supplies, and never had a response. -- Best wishes, Joe _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com

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Urban star parties
by daniel turner 18 Oct '04

18 Oct '04

Friday was a good night for public access astronomy. The Trailside park session was with the Utah Skies group. They asked for help with an army of third graders. The site is closer to Salt Lake than the Gravel Quarry and is as good an urban dark site as Stansbury Park. My reading of the satellite weather maps said that the clouds should start clearing at 8:00 PM. So we had to do some cloud dodging before the third graders left for bedtime. Lucky it wasnt a school night so we had plenty of customers on up to 10:00 PM. These short nights with a young enthusiastic audience are my favorite kind of star party. . Started out looking at M11, which is my favorite not-quite dark-enough dark sky object. I can fix it with a Telrad as soon as the tail star of Aquila becomes visible. M11 is a wide and dense open cluster with three prominent red giants and it sits in the dense Scutum star cloud, which gives it a rich background of very dim stars. When the clouds covered M11 I went to NGC457, the E.T. cluster. This has fewer stars on a less rich star field Not as good as M11 but a good parking spot until the Perseus Double cluster peeks through the clouds. The double cluster always draws a wows from the viewers. Parked on Polaris for a while to show viewers an easy double star. Also this let me take a break from tracking. This raised a call for more double stars, Please. These people are so polite. So as the peeked out of the clouds, we went to eta and iota Cassiopeia, Almaak, and Alberio. I wanted a galaxy but M31 wouldnt uncover from the clouds. So I went to Mirach and Mirachs ghost, NGC 404. This is a pretty red bright star right next to a faint fuzzy galaxy. Later we say M31 with dust lanes, M32 and M110. For Globular clusters, I hit M2, M13, and M56 as they uncovered from the clouds. Then there was a call for Planetary nebulae. So I hit M57 the Ring, M27 the Dumbbell, NGC6543 the Cats Eye, and NGC7009 the Saturn Nebula. The clouds were leaving but a gusty wind was picking up when I broke down at 10:30 PM. I mingled with some of the Utah Skies club members. They were laughing about the antics of the tinfoil hat faction of their club. Its a problem common to many astronomy clubs. It guess I would rather have an earnest debate with a four year old about black holes, than an earnest lecture from an adult who thinks that the U.S. State Department has established relations with 7 different extra-terrestrial civilizations. At least the 4 year old is still exercising critical thinking. DT _______________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Declare Yourself - Register online to vote today! http://vote.yahoo.com

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RE: [Utah-astronomy] off topic
by Josephine Grahn 18 Oct '04

18 Oct '04

Kim, Do you have dial up, DSL, or broadband? There are a series of steps that can be taken to protect yourself, depending on what sort of service you use. Jo

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another Wedge report
by Kim Hyatt 18 Oct '04

18 Oct '04

I should know better by now than to combine business with astronomy. I had work in Monticello Friday morning and in Price Friday afternoon. By the time I reached the Wedge I was too tired to care that the skies were cloudy - didn't even set up my scope. My son and I went to bed early, but I periodically poked my head out of the tent to see if the sky was clear. At about 4:15 Don Colton came by, shined his flashlight on my tent, and said, "Kim, it's clear!" While I was grateful that he woke me to join the observing fun, he scared the *~!# out of me. (But I don't hold it against you Don.) However, I was so tired that I decided to hold out for a clear night Saturday, and so I stayed in my warm sleeping bag and slept until 9:00. Bad choice. Saturday was even more cloudy than Friday, so the observing trip was a bust. Worse, I awoke Sunday to a flat tire and had to limp into Price to get it repaired. Fortunately, the flat seemed to be due to a nail and not the tire-mincing rocks that used to be such a problem. While the Wedge trip was a waste of time from an astronomy perspective, I had a great time with my 6-year-old. On Saturday we went to the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry and did a little hiking. Anyway, I'll be looking for an opportunity to do some after-midnight observing this week to make up for the disappointment at the Wedge. If anyone wishes to join me... Kim Hyatt Architect 1849 East 1300 South Salt Lake City, Utah 84108 801.631.5228 kimharch(a)msn.com<mailto:kimharch@msn.com> serius est quam cogitas

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RE: [Utah-astronomy] off topic
by Lambert, Aaron 18 Oct '04

18 Oct '04

I haven't tried any of the free ones lately, but your best bet otherwise is either Norton's (http://www.symantec.com/nav/nav_9xnt/) or McAfee's (http://us.mcafee.com/root/package.asp?pkgid=100&cid=9901) They both also have packages that deal with spam, spyware, firewall, etc. Aaron Lambert > -----Original Message----- > From: > utah-astronomy-bounces+aaron.lambert=williams.com(a)mailman.xmission.com > [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces+aaron.lambert=williams.com@mail > man.xmissi > on.com]On Behalf Of Kim Hyatt > Sent: Monday, October 18, 2004 11:13 AM > To: Utah Astronomy > Subject: [Utah-astronomy] off topic > > > I'm appealing to the only people I know who are likely to be > more computer savvy than I am. I'm looking for an appropriate > anti-virus program to purchase (unless, of course, there's a > good one available for free!). Suggestions? > > Kim Hyatt Architect > 1849 East 1300 South > Salt Lake City, Utah 84108 > 801.631.5228 > kimharch(a)msn.com<mailto:kimharch@msn.com> > > serius est quam cogitas > _______________________________________________ > Utah-Astronomy mailing list > Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy > Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com >

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Follow-on to Wedge report
by Jim Gibson 18 Oct '04

18 Oct '04

Among the many other objects that I forgot to mention, one of the more notable ones was M33 the Pinwheel Galaxy in Triangulum. Besides be spectacularly beautiful to observe, my primary interest was to see if we could see the nebula NGC 604 and we could. Don Colton found it. The structure of the spiral arms is well defined in the 20 scope and at the bottom of the view at the extremity of one of the arms is a bright splotchy spot or knot that is NGC 604. We could see other knots as well. I wish I would have put more power on NGC 604, but we were looking at the entire galaxy with either the 31mm (85x) or the 22mm (120x). I wish I had gone to the 9mm (292x) to look at NGC 604. I am looking forward to another chance to obsurve this beauty. We also saw the dust lane through the galaxy NGC 891 near Almaak in Andromeda and the nebula M1 looked like a big thumbprint. JG --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Address AutoComplete - You start. We finish.

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Tonight at the gravel pit
by Richard Tenney 17 Oct '04

17 Oct '04

For those of you who are not headed to the Wedge tonight that want to do some observing closer to home, a few of us will be at the Gravel Pit (East of Park City) tonight (Friday). I haven't decided if I'm going up early evening or late night, but I plan to be up there into the early morning hours hunting early winter objects along with Lowell Lyon and a few others, so if you come early and nobody is there yet stick around and you'll have company sometime after midnight at least. And if Lou Griffin shows up (hint, hint), there will be at least two 20-inch dobs there ;o) Rich PS, you can find directions on the UVAA website: http://www.uvaa.org/sitedirections/GravelPit.html _______________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Declare Yourself - Register online to vote today! http://vote.yahoo.com

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Wedge Friday Night
by Robert Taylor 17 Oct '04

17 Oct '04

A handful of "SLASers" made it down to the Wedge Friday night. Unfortunately clouds decided to visit Friday after a brilliantly clear week of skies. We watched the sky for signs of clearing but decided it wasn't going clear anytime soon so we drifted off to take a quick nap and check back in a few hours. Jim Gibson and I got up a little after mid-night to se how the skies were doing but the skies were still pretty bad. There were a few sucker holes but that was about it. After an hour of hoping and watching we gave up as we realized that even the sucker holes had disappeared behind cloud cover. Don Colton got up a few hours later (about 3am) to find the sky had finally cleared. Don rousted Jim and me and we had about 3 terrific hours with some winter constellations in relatively warm weather. We had 3 scopes going; Jim's 20" Dob, Don's 18" Robo Dob and and my "small" 16" Dob. Nebulas seemed to be the objects of choice: the Rosette, Eskimo, Crab, Horse Head (yes we actually saw it), the Orion (never saw it that bright, simply spectacular) and handful of other planetary and emission nebulas including an NGC right next to M81 and M82 that we'd not seem before, at least not me. Saturn was up high and bright, the Cassini division was popping in and out, seeing was not steady as you might expect after the clouds, but it still looked great after a summer's absence. The night ended with Leo high in the east and Venus shinning brightly enough to cast a shadow, Jupiter was up but too low to get a good view. Overall the tour of the winter constellations made it a worthwhile trip and a worthwhile wait. A handful of people stayed in bed that night despite a few attempts to wake them, not to fear, the winter constellations will be back, in the winter, wear your thermals. Bob Taylor

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Dawn Patrol: observing report from the gravel pit
by astrodeb＠charter.net 17 Oct '04

17 Oct '04

The California Nebula is large and faint but an easy starhop. I assume Robert had an h-beta filter to see it. Didn't the size of Abell 21 (Medusa Nebula) just blow you away? I found it last January with a 20" Starmaster and 31mm Nagler. The "horseshoe shape" was very apparent. Jim and I did some observing Thursday night because it was calm and clear. We looked at some planetaries in Cassiopea including Abell 6, Abell 82, Abell 84, IC 289, and IC 1747. Friday night was too windy for us so we decided to stay home and watch the baseball game, which was rained out. I finished off my roll of film Thursday night and am waiting for the results on Monday. I got a good view of the Pleaides and the Hyades before I packed in the 4" scope. Debbie > > From: Richard Tenney <retenney(a)yahoo.com> > Date: 2004/10/16 Sat PM 08:00:38 MDT > To: Utah-Astronomy <utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com>, > UVAA <uvaa(a)mailman.xmission.com> > Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Dawn Patrol: observing report from the gravel pit > > For those of you who were sitting at home, or surfing > the Wedge (and I don't mean Newport Beach CA) last > evening, early this morning I joined Tyler Allred > (Orem) at the gravel quarry about 1 a.m. (sorry I > missed the folks from BYU who were up earlier), and > was later joined by Joan, Lowell, and Robert Fisher > around 2 for some early winter fun. A nagging breeze > kicked up just before I arrived, but in spite of the > scope moving on its own a little too often, we managed > to find some pretty neat stuff. For one thing, a > welcome plethora of meteor activity (are we close to a > shower?) all night. In addition to adding a few new > H-400 objects to my log book (some open clusters in > Taurus, a few diffuse nebulae and a small Planetary > nebula in Orion), and Stephens Quintet, we were > treated to the California Nebula (huge!), Abell 21 > (the medusa nebula) and Hubble's variable Nebula (all > firsts for me) among other deep-sky gems, along with a > very cool "3-D" view of M42 in Robert's new AP > Traveler with the Denkmeier binoviewer fitted with > 24mm Panoptics -- an experienced not to be missed. > Half the fun up there was listening to Joan's frequent > ooohs and aaahs ;o) -- I love her enthusiasm. Aside > from an unfortunate mishap with my DSC's hitting the > pavement too hard (:o( it was a fun way to greet the > dawn... now if I can just get caught up on my rest... <yawn>. > > > > _______________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Declare Yourself - Register online to vote today! > http://vote.yahoo.com > > _______________________________________________ > Utah-Astronomy mailing list > Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy > Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com >

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New TeleKit
by Jim Gibson 15 Oct '04

15 Oct '04

A little about my new TeleKit that I don't think I have mentioned. The Primary is 20" and the focal length is 107.6"; that makes an f/5.375. Brent Watson bred into me the idea and advantages of long focal ratios and I really thought I would go with a f/6. When I climbed my ladder and dropped the tape measure to get an idea of where I would be I decided to go with an f/5 instead. So I think the f/5.375 is a good compromise. I had a special ladder built. It is an 8' orchard style ladder with the rungs only 8" apart. The wide base makes it really solid and with the short spaced rungs it makes it nice for those in-between situations. Who knows, I might even get Debbie Whitaker (the Ground Queen) to go up a few rungs (she doesnt like heights or ladders). When the Dob is placed vertical and while peering through the eyepiece the top of the ladder is about chest high; just right for holding onto. My lowest power, the 31mm Nagler, gives me 85x with a 0.97 degree FOV. My highest power is a University Optic Ortho at 4mm which gives me 685x with 0.07 degree FOV; things move fast through there. A 41mm Televue Panoptic would give me 64x with 1.06 degree FOV - I feel the tug of a purchase coming on, but I am not sure it would give me that much more. I will have to see if I can barrow Richs sometime for a peek. I can't see all of the Andromeda galaxy with the 31mm but it is still a good view and I cant see all of NGC 7000 (North American Nebula) but who can? I can see most everything else that I am interested in like Planetaries and such and a good bit more detail than my 12.5 f/7. The TeleKit weights a lot, I cant remember exactly, but with the wheel barrow style handles and wheels, I can get it around just fine. I need to get a good ramp to get it in and out of my van. It will be at the Wedge Overlook this Friday night so come by and have a look. JG --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? vote.yahoo.com - Register online to vote today!

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